Surviving and thriving with an HIV diagnosis takes more than
medicine. Longtime Atlanta resident Dee Dee Chamblee is the perfect example of
will, perseverance and self-esteem. She bounced back from drug use, sex work,
jail time and living with only 3 T cells to a healthy, happy life and is the
founder of LaGender, a prominent Atlanta transadvocacy group. Dee Dee was
recently profiled by thebody.com as part of their This Positive Life series.
“I was diagnosed 25 years ago, in 1987. And it was during the
time when I was expecting it,” Dee Dee begins. “There were people dying all
around me. We couldn't even keep up with the people that were dead.”
“You know, it was like a Holocaust. And it was a tragedy. We
had no counseling to get through it. And so, when I became positive, I kind of
denied it, went into denial for, like, seven years. Did drugs, alcohol,
prostituted, and did the whole realm. And, really, literally was trying to kill
myself; because that's the way it seemed that the world wanted me to just
disappear. Nobody wanted to look at me. People were very discriminatory towards
transgenders, as far as getting jobs and stuff like that. So my only choice was
to prostitute at that time.”
“Once I found out, and after the seven years of denial, I
realized that I hadn't went nowhere. So I decided I better brush the dirt off
of me and kick the flowers to the side -- that the funeral is not going to be
held, it doesn't seem. So I got up and I started trying to find me a support
group, someone that could help me love myself again.”
With the help of Common Ground, Dee Dee did survive and
flourish. She now runs a support group for transgenders in the prison, counsels
young people, and is an advocate for transgender rights in the city, among
other things. “We have to build an exterior to be able to withstand what we
have to go through,” she states.
Dee Dee offers this advice to others: “Go to the doctor. See
about yourself. Love yourself. And start on a new path, with new boundaries
that you set for yourself in your new life that you're starting to live. Don't
look at it as a curse. Look at it as: It has opened your eyes that you should
not live the way that you live in order to contract this disease, and that
"I need to live a healthier lifestyle for myself, because I can today.
Today I have more opportunities that I can go about it and do it the right way,
and come out and be a success story."
